Hosting and data
How do you transfer a domain name, and what can go wrong?
Short answer
Transferring a domain name means another party takes over managing the registration. You ask your current provider for a transfer code and give it to the new one, which carries out the move. The name stays yours and the address does not change. The risk is not in the transfer itself but in the DNS: if the settings are not ready at the new provider beforehand, mail and website go down.
What are you actually moving?
A domain name has three parts, which often sit with the same party but exist separately.
| Part | What it is | Moves along? |
|---|---|---|
| Registration | The right to the name, recorded with the registry of the extension | Yes, this is the transfer |
| DNS | The list that says where website, mail and other services are | Only if you arrange it |
| Hosting and mail | The servers the website and mailboxes run on | No, that is a separate move |
Most problems arise because someone thinks it is one thing.
In what order do you do it?
- Check the holder. Is the name registered to your organisation? If not, arrange that first.
- Make a copy of the DNS. All records, including the unfamiliar ones. They hold the mail settings, the Microsoft 365 verification, the link with the newsletter tool.
- Set up the DNS at the new provider. Before the transfer, and compare line by line.
- Request the transfer code from the current provider.
- Have the new provider carry out the transfer. A .nl name usually moves across without delay; .com and other international extensions take longer, because the old provider first gets the chance to respond.
- Check afterwards. Does the website work, does mail arrive and does mail go out?
- Only then cancel with the old provider.
Steps 2 and 3 are the ones that get skipped. They are also the only ones that prevent an outage.
What goes wrong most often?
A forgotten record. The website works, so the transfer seems to have succeeded. Two days later it turns out that invoices from the bookkeeping package land in spam, because the record for SPF or DKIM was not carried over.
Mail was in the hosting package. The domain name was moved and the old package cancelled. The mailboxes were in it too, and disappeared with the package. Always move mail as a separate step and check that everything has arrived before you cancel.
The name is registered to someone else. The web builder who registered it ten years ago can no longer be reached. Then it becomes a process with the registry of the extension. It almost always works, but it takes time you do not have if the name is about to expire.
The name expires during the transfer. Do not transfer in the last weeks before the renewal date. Renew first, transfer afterwards.
A lock on the name. International extensions often have a transfer lock that you have to switch off first, and after a recent registration or change of holder a name may temporarily be impossible to transfer.
Do you have to move the registration at all?
Not always. If you only want to put your website or mail somewhere else, changing the DNS is enough. The registration can stay where it is.
Transferring makes sense if you want everything with one party, if the current provider is hard to reach, or if the name is in the wrong name and you are tidying up anyway.
Some clients keep their domain names in their own name in their own account; others let us manage the registration and renewal. Both work. In the second case we record that the name belongs to the client and goes with them if they leave.
And if you would rather not do it yourself?
Then we do it as part of DNS management or a hosting move. We carry over the records, check them and plan the switch for a moment when it can do little harm.